Nomad Jr. Part 3: Ghosts

Ghosts of Portables Past 3 is live and it’s time to dig out some old projects. This year we are continuing work on the Nomad Jr, a GOAC with a 3D printed case modeled after the original Sega Nomad footprint, but smaller. This post will be updated all month and will go live on the 31st (or sooner if finished early, don’t hold your breath on that though). You can view this now if you desire or visit the (Bitfix Gaming) forums for updates, just be sure to check back at the end of the month.

Here is the state of the Nomad Jr. since last update around October 2015. All the 3D printed pieces are done, and the wiring is almost complete as well with just a few wires that will be attached once I start installing the electronics into the board. Some pieces may have to be printed again, mainly the back piece) for more screw wells to secure the electronics, but we’ll see.

To secure the 3D printed pieces together, super glue was added first for structure and ABS slurry goop will be added on the inside for more stability. The super glue that was used did not dry clear unfortunately, but the powdery residue can be easily removed with rubbing alcohol. All the parts seem to fit well together so far. The bottom piece might need to be altered a bit under the d-pad, but that should be able to fix instead of printing an entirely new piece.

Did a quick test fit to see how everything fits together. As you can see, a bit of misfit on the dpad piece as mentioned above. Will try to shave off some filament with an exacto knife first to hopefully save the part to avoid printing a new one. Overall I’m pretty happy with the case! There’s a few minor {glibs} but nothing {major, offending}. It is printed with ABS, but I’m not going to do any post print alterations like acetone smoothing, just as a visual of what commercial 3D printers can do currently. Consider this a prototype unit I suppose and expect a fancier model for Nomad Jr. v2.